From left, Lou Wai Kit, Reza Rashidnia and Paula Carion
The coach and members of the Macau karate team that will represent the MSAR in the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, said that they are feeling more confident after training in Iran.
Coach Mohammad Reza Rashidnia told the Times that they have been preparing for this year’s Asian Games since the end of the East Asian Games in 2013.
Mr Rashidnia said that so far it has been “good preparation”. The team organized two training camps held in Macau and one in Iran, with the latter lasting for a month.
The coach said that the trip to Iran and training with members of the Iranian national team has helped because it allowed the Macau team members to practice with different opponents of various body sizes and styles.
The coach said that for other countries and regions, the Karate athletics have no problem looking for training partners within their own team. However, this is very difficult for the Macau team due to its small size.
“Macau is a small [place] and my team is not so big. So, in many categories, I just have one or maximum two [athletes]. For Karate, especially Kumite (sparring) fighting, you need partners,” he said
With different types of Karate athletes in Iran, coach Rashidnia said that he could train different aspects of his team members, which has shown good results.
Apart from traveling there, Mr Rashidnia has also invited four of the best Iranian Karate athletes to come to Macau and help his team in training.
“After the training camp in Iran, I have noticed that they have improved. Especially in confidence, which is very important for karate,” he said.
The coach also believes that good confidence is the strength of his team members, despite the fact that some of them are still relatively young.
“Their technique and tactics may not be very good but their fighter’s spirit is great,” he said.
However, due to the fact that Macau does not have a full professional team, Mr Rashidnia said that many of the students have “just come and [gone]” throughout the previous years and the team has been unable to gain a good foundation.
This has influenced his coaching style, which he said is to find a “shortcut” for his athletes.
“I always find the shortcut of how to fight and how to win (…) Maybe the general preparation [of the athletes] is not really [sufficient] when comparing with Iran, for example. But there can still be a good fight there,” the coach said.
He wishes that the Macau government would establish a sizable Karate school that can train students for not just one to two years but up to five or six, which he said is his dream.
Another feature of his coaching style is to mix the traditional training system with the systems of other sports.
“I want my students to follow the [traditional system] in terms of [upholding elements such as] respect, but not to make my students to just go one narrow way. I want them to open and use different [training systems],” he said.
Eventually, he wants his students to be “like waves” and change their fighting tactics and style according to the opponents they encounter.
While the coach is reluctant to make predictions about this year’s result, he stated that he has given the best to his students and said that the team will try its best to achieve a greater result than before. “I believe in my team. I trust them,” he said.
Other than coach Rashidnia, two members of the Macau Karate team, Paula Carion and Lou Wai Kit also spoke to the Times.
Ms Carion said that although she had suffered an injury at the beginning of the year, she has a good feeling about the Games.
The athlete also said that during her trip to Iran, she tried out several strategies, which she said are enough to handle the Asian Games.
As for the expectations for the games, Ms Carion said that she always believes in her ability to win medals. “However, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself and my team members at this moment. The Karate team should be able to win medals, but I don’t want to speculate about which kind of medal [we will get],” she said.
Nevertheless, she reiterated that the final result would depend on the athletes’ performance during the fight.
“If I can have 80 percent of myself during the practice in a real fight, it would be very good then,” she said.
Moreover, Ms Carion said that there are two opponents in the Asian Games who she thinks are very competitive. They are Ayumi Uekusa from Japan and Iranian athlete Hamideh Abbasali.
While she thinks that the Japanese athlete is really strong, she believes that the fight with the Iranian athlete will be a close call if it arises.
Meanwhile, Paula Carion’s teammate, Lou Wai Kit, reckoned that he has had sufficient preparation and is increasingly confident.
“In my last training week this week, I will be improving my status to the highest level and hope that I can use what I am practicing in the fights,” he said.
Like Coach Rashidnia described, Lou Wai Kit said that he does not have many practice partners in Macau. While traveling to Iran, Mr Lou said he has faced different opponents and understood some of his shortcomings.
“The greatest benefit of the Iranian trip is that I learnt what problems I have. The environment there also gave me the confidence to improve myself further,” he said.
The athlete is fighting in the group that is the heaviest, while he is actually the lightest among all the competitors in his group.
“My disadvantage is that I am lighter than my opponents, which means that it’s easier for them to throw me when they get close to me. However, my advantage is that I am relatively faster,” he said.
Lou Wai Kit said that he would like to win medals in this year’s Asian Games as it is his first and likely also his last Games, because he is not certain whether he can fight for five more years.
Macau pockets two silvers in Wushu
Two Macau Wushu (martial arts) athletes, Jia Rui and Li Yi, have each won silver medals in the sub-categories of Changquan and Jianshu/Qiangshu. Jia Rui won the Changquan silver medal on Saturday, scoring 9.69 points, only 0.02 points lower than South Korean athlete Lee Hasung. Li Yi also lost by 0.02 points in the Jianshu/Qiangshu category, with the first place going to her Vietnamese opponent Duong Thuy Vi. Meanwhile, Macau swimmer Ngou Pok Man broke the Macau record during the group stage of the backstroke category. However, he finished in third place and could not proceed to the next stage.
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